The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is a kickass monster, and hand down the most luxurious widescreen high-end gaming monitor out there. This 49-inch behemoth boasts a sprawling 5,120 x 1,440 resolution alongside a 240Hz refresh rate and backs it up with an HDR 1000 rating. When we reviewed the Samsung Odyssey G9 last year, we loved it for the immersive widescreen gaming performance, but with the Odyssey Neo G9, Samsung dwarfs out competing gaming monitors by a vast margin.
We’re looking at a monitor with better lighting, an HDR 2000 rating, and a shift to Mini-LED technology over the QLED technology in last year’s model. The result is one of the most advanced gaming monitors we’ve ever seen. However, for the added features, it will set you back quite a fortune, and you’ll need one of the best gaming PCs to drive this investment – maybe something like the RTX 3080 on the minimum.
The Samsung Neo G9 is more expensive than it was last year, but it is largely worth the added cost if you can afford it. The 49-inch display is honestly the best we’ve reviewed, with incredible black levels that you won’t ordinarily find in most gaming monitors. Playing modern AAA on this piece of kit is a truly luxurious experience, which makes the steep asking price a little justified.
About the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is available for just under two grand, and that makes it one of the most expensive gaming monitors you’re going to buy this year. However, even with the blistering price tag, it brings a lot to the table that other gaming monitors simply can’t match. This far, it’s the only gaming monitor with an HDR 2000 rating, which means it’s worlds ahead of the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ, and it delivers the best HDR ever seen on a monitor, it even thrashes TVs we’ve seen.
So, while the price has been bumped up by a lot since we last reviewed the Odyssey G9 model, it makes sense that you’re getting all the flashy tech Samsung has included in its top-tier gaming model. Just to mention, the Samsung Odyssey G9 was already a king among ultrawide gaming monitors, but the latest Neo G9 LS49AG952NNXZA model takes everything to high echelons, with the kind of performance matched for gamers who only demand nothing but pure excellence money can buy.
If you get a pause by simply looking at the price tag, then this isn’t probably for you. It’s a gaming monitor that costs as much as a high-end gaming desktop and is a perfect match for any gamer looking to reign the clouds without a care on a bank account with a dent. If that describes you, and you don’t mind splurging all that cash, then this is a good thing to invest in.
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Specs
| Monitor Class | Gaming |
| Screen Size / Aspect Ratio | 49 inches / 32:9 |
| Curve Radius | 1000R |
| Max Resolution | 5120×1440 |
| Refresh Rate | Max 240 Hz |
| Adaptive Sync | NVIDIA G-SYNC & AMD FreeSync |
| Response Time (GTG) | 1ms |
| Brightness | 420 nits SDR, 2,000 nits HDR |
| Speakers | None |
| Inputs | HDMI, DisplayPort, USB |
| Dimensions | 16.5 x 45.3 x 21.1 inches |
| Weight | 32 pounds |
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Review: Design
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is huge. And while that’s obvious from the packaging box and the fact that it’s a 49in monitor, it just hits you when you get it out of the box and ready to set up on your desk. If you have small desk space, do not apply, this thing is massive and it needs enough desk space. The sheer size can be intimidating at first, but that size works in its favor if you need an immersive gaming experience.
When sitting in front of the Odyssey Neo G9 and playing games – maybe Cyberpunk 2077 – the game takes up nearly your entire field of view, drawing you much closer to the moment. You don’t suffer from any distractions unless you want them, but if you need to get immersed, the wide field of view does magic.
The monitor doesn’t have the thinnest bezels around, they’re visible on the sides and top, but the bottom is more pronounced. However, that should not be a big problem daily, thanks to the monitor’s big size. The only logo you’ll find on the front of the Neo G9 is the Nvidia G-Sync logo, which would rather not be there – happily, the monitor has G-Sync.
Like its predecessor, the LS49AG952NNXZA has a little joystick/button combo slightly off the center on the bottom of the display. It lets you interact with the on-screen menu, where you can adjust almost all aspects of the monitor such as brightness and contrast. Next to the joystick, there are three recessed buttons that you can use to save specific settings for up to three different games, which is useful if you keep switching between different types of games.
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While the front of the monitor doesn’t look like much, the backside looks awesome, pretty identical to last year’s model. It’s a beautiful all-way colorway with some sleek designs etched in. Samsung finally brings back the RGB circle around where the stand clicks in the back.
Cable management is top-notch as they all go into a little compartment at the bottom of the display, and you also get a big plastic panel that you can slide into where all the cables go in. It supports standard VESA-compatible mounts, but the massive weight of the monitor will require a strong stand/mount to handle it.
Connectivity options are useful, but not the best, we’ve seen better in monitors that cost much less. This monitor gets two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-B cable (that is used for USB passthrough), two HMI 2.1 ports, and one DisplayPort. Samsung includes both an HDMI 2.1 cable and a DisplayPort cable, but if you want to take advantage of the b240Hz refresh rate, you’re going to have to use HDMI 2.1, since the refresh rate will be limited to 120Hz over DP.
It’s just a little disappointing to have such limited input on an otherwise brilliant gaming monitor. Remember, one of the coolest things about this monitor is the ability to emulate two 27-inch 1440p monitors, meaning it would be more meaningful to connect a wide array of devices. For instance, it would be nice to connect a PS5, have some extra ports for the PC, and have a Nintendo Switch connected too, so you can just swap better all those devices. Well, maybe Samsung will consider that in next year’s model.
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Review: Performance
We can’t overstate how impressive this gaming monitor is, but it’s full of firsts in the wide-screen gaming niche. Its unusual shape results in an unusual resolution: 5,120 x 1,440 (a 32:9 aspect ratio), which is an equivalent of two 2,560 x 1,440 monitors stacked side-by-side. This is almost three times the size of a standard 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) display, but a little smaller than a single 4K (3,840 x 2,160) screen. This is quite impressive, as it means you don’t the most powerful graphics card to max out the details in your games, but having the most powerful rig that you can afford never hurts.
With the Neo G9, Samsung somehow managed to double the peak brightness over the 1,000 nits in last year’s model to 2,000 in this model. That gives it an HDR 2000 rating, which is the best HDR you’re going to find outside playing your PC games on a high-end OLED TV.
The peak brightness alone would be impressive, but the LS49AG952NNXZA also includes Samsung’s new Quantum Mini LED tech, which is the latest innovation behind the latest QLED TVs. So, far and above the 10 dimming zones in last year’s model, the Odyssey Neo G9 now has a whooping 2,048 local dimming zones, which is a remarkable upgrade on a gaming monitor.
In games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Destiny 2, the monitor shines bright. Having HDR is a luxury addition we all like to see on monitors, and the move from HDR 400 to HDR 200 is simply mind-boggling, and that puts the Neo G9 in a whole other world of brightness and color.
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Because the Samsung Odyssey Neo is not only bib and it’s not just a high resolution, it’s also brighter and more colorful than any other monitor you’ve probably seen. Combine that with the high refresh rate, and you have brilliant gaming heaven that you’ll want to be part of. However, even with the high refresh rate and the high resolution, there’s one big problem: performance.
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 rocks a 5,120 x 1,440 display, which is typically 4K. Even if you’ll be using this monitor with a gaming PC equipped with an NVidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, there aren’t as many games that will max out at 120 fps on this display, much less 240. For instance, on midrange gaming monitors games like Deathloop often hover around 110 fps, which occasionally drop down to 100 or 90 fps. That’s a really fast frame rate, don’t get us wrong, but it’s still miles away from being able to utilize this display’s full potential.
After all, with a monitor that costs as much as the Neo G9, you’re going to want to give it some room to grow in the future, but it’s now up to PC GPUs to catch up, and it will be a long time before this monitor’s performance is considered standard.
Depending on which video hardware drives your gaming PC, you’ll appreciate built-in support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro adaptive sync technologies (currently, AMD claims the latter is only utilized in 17 titles).
The superfluous real estate is a boon if you’re the type of person who tends to work with multiple windows of multiple applications at one – meaning, you can have YouTube up in one window, Word in another, and running some code in a third – under almost any other circumstance you’re going to find an ideal way to fill every inch at your disposal here.
Should you buy the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9?
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is the best super-ultrawide monitor money can buy. It packs plenty of pixel density to ensure a sharply detailed image, it delivers super-accurate color right out of the box, and covers over 88% of the DCI-P3 gamut for saturated, lifelike visuals.
Meanwhile, contrast is excellent, all thanks to a VA panel and superb local dimming edge backlight. Samsung claims 2,000-nit capability for HDR content, making this one of the largest dynamic ranges available.
To all this, it adds super speed. We’re used to 144Hz monitors that offer decent performance, but the Neo G9 takes PC gaming to a new level altogether. The Odyssey G9 is easily the fastest and most responsive large monitor we’ve seen yet.
We have a few gripes including a lack of ultra-low motion blur reduction and a frame rate counter, and we hope it included built-in speakers. But these omissions won’t detract you from enjoying a luxurious gaming experience.
Overall, the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 (LS49AG952NNXZA) delivers an ultimate premium gaming experience that you can’t match elsewhere. It costs a fortune, but it’s unique and powerful. If you have a high-end gaming PC, this is a great choice to match.
The Review
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 (LS49AG952NNXZA) is a super-ultrawide gaming beast that packs some of the most impressive tech we’ve ever seen on a PC display. While the steep asking price and massive size will probably give some people a pause, it remains the best 49-inch monitor that is great at what it does.
Recommended Configuration
SAMSUNG 49" Odyssey Neo G9 G95NA Gaming Monitor, 4K UHD Mini LED Display, Curved Screen, 240Hz, 1ms, G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro, LS49AG952NNXZA, White & Black
PROS
- Incredibly vibrant colors
- True blacks
- So much screen
CONS
- Dims when you don’t want it to
Review Breakdown
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EDITORS RATING
Last update on 2024-10-18 at 00:36 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
